Customer Reviews

From Nineveh to New York: The Strange Story of the Assyrian Reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum & the Hidden Masterpiece at Canford School

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John Malcolm Russell has written some fine books on Assyria, one of them "Final Sack of Nineveh" is a superb tome on the history of the excavations and modern destruction of Nineveh. But unfortunately this work was terribly dry, rather boring, and most frustrating in that he spends way to much time going over Lady Charlotte Guest's diary and all the who-what-when and why of the time she lived in and not hardly enough time on Layard and the excavations. And as far as how the Met acquired the reliefs, it basically came down to agreements made with the Rockefeller family. Not very exciting. I suppose i'm more interested in the digs themselves and would have preferred more on them and less on the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The first chapter on the layout of two key palaces was great, but after that it turned into a long, dull read. Great story...just not told so great.

A dissapointing account about Sir Austen Henry Layard's exploits.The author quest for detail makes it cumberson reading and he is far too obsessed with telling about his own small part in recovery of one of the long-lost Bas-Reliefs from Nenievh. There are many other sources including Layard's own works that are far more enjoyable to read.